The present invention is directed to a technique for monitoring and controlling a parking machine from a remote location and, in particular, determining that a particular parking machine has produced a machine error signal and for enabling a setting or modification of machine operating parameters.
Parking machines for prepaying a fee to park at a designated space have long been known, with a prime example of such being the ubiquitous parking meter placed on the sidewalk at each parking spot, or to cover two adjacent spots, and which consists of mechanical parts. A pointer on the meter is connected to a coin-activated timing mechanism to show whether any time remains on the meter. In more recent times, the parking meter is being gradually replaced by an electrical parking prepayment system which covers a plurality of parking spaces with a single parking machine. More specifically, one type of such an apparatus is a parking machine which includes a clock, a coin and/or bill acceptor, electronic processing circuits, and a printer. Depending upon the amount of money inserted into the parking machine, the printer produces a receipt upon which an expiration time appears. In other words, if the clock indicates that the current time when payment is made is 10:15 a.m., if the hourly parking rate is $5, and if $10 are inserted into the parking machine, then the receipt will have an expiration time of 12:15 p.m. printed on it. This receipt is placed on the dashboard behind the windshield and in clear view of any passing traffic policeman. With this type of apparatus, the specific parking spot being used is not designated on the receipt. As long as the vehicle is parked in a legal spot and if the time on the printed receipt has not expired, then a parking ticket will not be issued. With this arrangement, the parking policeman must individually check the receipt in each and every vehicle.
In a second type of such apparatus, the monitoring by the traffic policeman is simplified because, rather than producing a printed receipt, the expiration time is stored in the memory of the parking machine. In addition to the parking machine components listed above, this type of parking machine is provided with a keypad and a display so that the customer can input the number of a specific parking spot in which his vehicle is located and/or the license number of the vehicle. The expiration time is determined in accordance with the amount of money paid into the parking machine, as described above. A traffic policeman can access that memory to obtain a readout on the display of all parking spaces where the expiration time has passed or is coming up. This type of parking machine is also more convenient for the driver because he does not have to return to the vehicle after paying in order to place the receipt in a clearly visible position.
Due to the capacity of the memory in a parking machine, each one is assigned to designated spaces within a public parking garage, for example. Thus, a 1,000 space public garage may need 20 parking machines if each one is capable of covering 50 spaces. The convenience of the user is also a factor which enters into how many spots a machine is designated to cover. If too many spots are covered by a single parking machine, then the customer may be forced to walk an inconveniently long distance to it. This is particularly so with on-street parking where perhaps there are only 10 spaces per block and, thus only 30 spots are within convenient walking distance. However, this arrangement requires the traffic policeman to individually access the information in each parking machine. This can take quite a bit of time and effort. Also, if the driver wants to extend the parking time, he has to return to the same parking machine in order to insert more money. Consequently, it would be helpful in such circumstances to have more flexibility in terms of which parking machines cover which parking spaces.
An enhancement of this latter type is to interconnect a number of the parking machines together. With such an interconnected version, all of the parking machines in, for example, a parking garage share information on all of the parking spaces collectively associated therewith. Thus, the parking machine next to parking spaces 1-50 can even be used to enter information for parking space 695. Likewise, the traffic policeman needs to interrogate only a single parking machine in order to obtain information about all of the 1,000 spaces in the above-mentioned parking garage. U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,805 discloses such an interconnected system. The term "parking machine" is used herein to identify any apparatus having characteristics generally similar to either one of the two above-described types of apparatus.
The parking machines use supplies, such as paper, which are depleted with use. A periodic replacement of the supplies by service personnel is required. However, even though a replacement schedule is maintained at regular intervals, an unexpectedly heavy use at one parking machine may deplete the supplies more quickly than expected. In such a case, the parking machine would be placed out of service for awhile. This would not even be known by the management responsible for the parking machines, and could not be rectified, until the service person comes by on his regular rounds. Consequently, the parking customers may be inconvenienced during the interval between the time when the parking machine goes out of service and when the service personnel corrects the problem. It is also possible that the parking machine, like any electro-mechanical device, will experience a breakdown of some sort which renders it out of order. Again, in this instance the management would have no way of knowing about it until the regularly scheduled visitation by its service personnel which, if such a visit has occurred just prior to the breakdown, may be several days away. Scheduling more frequent visits to each parking machine will ameliorate this situation, but it can result in an unacceptably high increase in labor costs as well as associated expenses such as transportation costs involving gasoline, tolls, and vehicle maintenance. Consequently, it is highly desirable to know the operating status of each parking machine promptly upon a change having occurred therein and without the necessity to increase the frequency of visitations to the parking machine by service personnel.
Each parking machine is preset with certain operating parameters such as the time of day and the parking rate. For example, the parking rate is set, as mentioned above, at $5 per hour. A variable parking rate, depending on the time of day and/or the day of the week can also be preset. For example, a higher rate could be applied before 6:00 p.m. when the heavier demand warrants it, whereas after 6:00 p.m. a lower rate could be advantageous to attract customers during what normally is a low demand period. The data for determining the parking fee is termed fare structure data. If it is desired to change this fare structure data, it must be done on-site at each parking machine by service personnel. This requires the service person to make a special visit or to spend additional time at each machine on a schedule visit and, consequently, additional labor costs ensue. It would be highly desirable to be able to change the fare structure data as well as various operating parameters of a parking machine without the need to resort to a manual operation carried out by service personnel on-site at each parking machine.